A 21st birthday like no other: Matt High and the Meredith Music Festival

By Jarrod Watt

Imagine organising a 21st birthday where 10,000 or so people will turn up, along with all your favourite bands. Matt High talks about the history of the festival, its links to the community throughout south west Victoria and how the traditions and rituals of the Festival are as colourful as the people who attend it.

It's grown from a party on the back of a truck in a paddock to a three day festival attracting in excess of 10,000 people with its own mini-city built to support the armies of volunteers and workers keeping the whole thing going.

Matt High attended the first Meredith Music Festival as a regular punter; in the years since he has become part of the core team which has built the December weekend in a farm paddock into a world-reknowned music event.

Hear him discuss the potted history of the festival, of the year it the whole thing was nearly cancelled, of how one gets old in rock and roll, of spontaneous gatherings of redheads and how Dennis Commetti was convinced into commentating on a nude running race.